Russia Sustains Five Rocket Failures in Less Than a Year

The Russian space program and satellite launching business is in serious jeopardy after a series of failed launches over the last 12 months. While we were all off getting ready for the Christmas holiday, a fifth failed launch occurred on December 23. A Soyuz-2 rocket lifted off and then the rocket engine failed before the satellite reached orbit.

The satellite fell back into the atmosphere and was destroyed, adding to the already hundreds of millions of dollars of lost space investments this year. The satellite aboard the unmanned rocket was called the Meridian military communications satellite. The failed launch took off from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome. There are other rockets set to launch from the same location in the coming weeks, but these recent failures definitely call into question the Russian’s ability to launch rockets successfully.